EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES & CULTURAL STUDIES Department Newsletter Volume 11 Fall 2018 Table of Contents Words from the Chair........................................................................................p 3 Mission Statement Chinese Language Program.............................................................................p 4 The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies is Japanese Language Program..........................................................................p 5 committed to providing students with the opportunity to understand the many East Asia Center................................................................................................p 6 facets of East Asian cultures, including languages, literature, history, society, Remembering Hyung Il Pai..............................................................................p 8 politics, economics, religion, media, and art. In a world of increasing international Interview with Eunjin Choi..............................................................................p 13 connection and globalization, we prepare students to incorporate Confucius Institute..........................................................................................p 14 knowledge of Asia into their future interactions and responsibilities within “Reinventing Japan” Research Focus Group...............................................p 15 our complex world. Sōseki: Modern Japan’s Greatest Novelist, by John Nathan......................p 16 Faculty Activities.............................................................................................p 17 The Politics of Rights and the 1911 Revolution in China, by Xiaowei Zheng...........................................................................................p 20 Shinto Studies.................................................................................................p 22 Interview with Fabio Rambelli........................................................................p 23 Interview with Xueyi Wang.............................................................................p 25 Our Staff Conference Report: Patterns and Networks in Classical Chinese Literature...........................................................................p 26 Director Cori Montgomery (805) 893-2993 Interview with Wona Lee................................................................................p 27 Financial Services Amanda Maffett Center for Taiwan Studies..............................................................................p 28 Manager (805) 893-4623 Interview with Jessica Nakamura...................................................................p 29 Student Services Jill Title Manager (805) 893-3316 Interview with Cori Montgomery...................................................................p 30 Financial Collin Holtz Coordinator (805) 893-5463 Become a Friend of EALCS...........................................................................p 36 Academic Natalie Juarez Personnel (805) 893-3731 Coordinator Undergrad & Alyson Alexander Graduate Student (805) 893-2744 Advisor Tech Support Tony Chabolla Specialist (805) 893-2731 2 Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies Words from the Chair I must begin this year’s newsletter with the very sad news that related to ascetic mountain re- EALCS has lost a cherished faculty member, Hyung Il Pai, who ligious practices. We are ever passed away in June. Pai, a renowned scholar of Korean an- grateful for their impact and thropology, archeology, and more recently of heritage and wonderful presence in the de- tourism studies, was a member of our department since 1990. partment over these two years. Not only an excellent scholar with many awards and recogni- tions, Pai was a spirited and courageous human being who will Goodbye also to Haotian Li, be greatly missed by her students and colleagues. A memorial who spent the past few years was held in November. Her full obituary is included on page 8. in EALCS teaching Chinese under the support of the Con- As our sole Korean Studies faculty member, Pai advocated fucius Institute. Li received the steadfastly to bring Korean Studies into a more prominent highest praise for his teach- position within the department. Her last major effort in this ing from both students and direction was co-organizing with Sabine Frühstück a confer- Chinese language program ence in the spring of 2018 titled “New Directions in Korean colleagues. He has returned Studies,” which brought several prominent scholars to cam- to his home institution, Shan- Katherine Saltzman-Li pus for a day of stimulating talks and discussion. I also or- dong University (partner uni- ganized a Graduate Student Research Symposium in Korean versity for our Confucius Institute), and a new highly expe- Studies, highlighting the excellent Korea-related research of rienced teacher, Chen Meng, takes his place beginning in five graduate students at UCSB. In addition, I am very happy Fall 2018. Our Chinese language program has been great- to report that we were able to offer first-year Korean language ly enhanced by the contributions of these fine teachers. in 2017-2018 and again in the summer of 2018, under the ex- cellent instruction of Wona Lee, who has just received her Our majors, minors, and graduate students continue to Ph.D. in bilingual education from UCSB’s Gevirtz Graduate thrive, as you can see from the program and center reports School of Education. The Korea-related research of several and interviews in the pages that follow. We try to give our of our graduate students and the persistent wish of many un- majors and minors opportunities to explore their career op- dergraduates led to this very welcome reintroduction into our tions and the ways they might use their studies after gradu- curriculum. Over 2018-2019, we are adding instruction in sec- ation. A highlight in this effort this year was a discussion ond-year Korean. This fall, we also welcome Eunjin Choi, who and Q&A that I moderated on campus with visiting artist comes to EALCS thanks to the support of the Korea Founda- Abigail Washburn, a renowned banjo player and singer, for tion through the East Asia Center’s successful award applica- a UCSB Arts & Lectures concert. Aside from her solo and tion. She will teach courses in Korean film and media studies. group concerts with other American musicians, Washburn We are very excited to be able to build Korean Studies into collaborates with Chinese musicians creatively and in sup- our curriculum and research in EALCS, realizing a long wished- port of building positive US-China relations (see her TED for and necessary addition to our department’s mission. talk for more on this subject). Washburn generously shared her thoughts on music, her work with Chinese musicians, We welcomed two new colleagues into the department this her efforts as an artist on behalf of US-China relations, her year. Chinese art historian Peter Sturman is now a joint ap- unusual career as a professional American musician with a pointment with EALCS and his long-time department, His- background in Chinese-language study, and her thoughts on tory of Art and Architecture. Sturman specializes in Chinese the necessity for passion as a foundation for career choices. painting, more recently with a strong focus on calligraphy. His expertise will benefit our students in literature and cul- For the benefit of our graduate students, we hosted two dis- tural studies as well as his art history students, and we are tinguished scholars under the auspices of a new program, excited that he will have a more active presence in the de- now in its second year. This program brings visiting scholars partment. Our second new colleague, Tom Mazanec, whom to EALCS each year, one in Chinese Studies and one in Jap- I introduced in last year’s newsletter, hit the ground running anese Studies, to conduct a workshop and/or seminar and at UCSB by organizing and hosting a major conference, “Pat- to deliver a public lecture. Joachim Kurtz of the University of terns and Networks in Classical Chinese Literature: Notes Heidelberg was invited as The Pai Hsien-Yung Visiting Schol- from the Digital Frontier.” The conference brought together ar. He works on Confucian revivalism in China and its national scholars of classical Chinese literature using techniques and and global significance. Japanese Studies Visiting Scholar, approaches from the digital humanities to give fresh insights Ellis Tinios, from the University of Leeds, specializes in early into existing and new questions in Chinese literary studies. modern Japanese print and printed books. Both scholars gave talks and workshops, and in Tinios’s case we also partnered Goodbye to our two visiting scholars of Japanese religions, with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for an additional talk. Andrea Castiglioni and Carina Roth, who both spent a sec- ond year with us teaching, carrying out research, and inter- Exciting events, teaching, and research plans are in place for acting with the department in a variety of productive ways. the year ahead. To all our alums and supporters, please join us They made valuable contributions to our graduate student whenever you are in Santa Barbara. We look forward to meet- colloquium, conference organization in collaboration with ing you or seeing you again, and to sharing our work with you! Fabio Rambelli, and other program contributions, includ- ing a film festival devoted to documentaries and discussion University of California,